Smart grid

You mentioned, right, that energy cooperation has come to become a very important aspect in a BRICS summit, um, especially this year after the global energy markets have experienced tremendous volatility after the Strait of Hormuz crisis, right? But, so before we look into what this summit holds over the weekend for energy cooperation, I think it would be helpful to, uh, look back into the previous initiatives that BRICS has had, right? So, um, in terms of previous initiatives, BRICS has gradually built a framework for cooperation, right? There is no overarching energy agreement as such, but, um, there was a roadmap that, uh, was introduced in the last, uh, summit in 2025.

So the Energy Cooperation Roadmap for 2025 to 2030 was adopted, and, um, that mainly aims for providing greater coordination through joint research, investment, and technology collaboration, right? And, uh, more recently, in terms of, uh, progress in that, uh, roadmap, when the energy ministers met in June 2026 this time, they launched the Digital Center of Excellence for Smart Grids and Energy Storage, uh, which was also, also something that was planned in the roadmap, right, to focus on both of these technologies between 2026 to 2027.

So in- This platform that has been launched is sort of, um, aimed for, uh, knowledge sharing capacity building and, um, of course, joint pilot projects in, um, both smart grids and energy storage.

So that has been of technology that has been in focus for these countries.

There's also a financing, uh, dimension for clean energy.

It's an entirely different battle space.

If we look at the evolution of the smart grid, it represents a fundamental shift in energy management.

I mean, the grid is no longer just a one way pipeline from a coal plant to your house.

It's

Which is structurally necessary for modern energy, right? Because you need that two-way communication for dynamic demand response, you know, balancing supply and demand instantly, and for integrating decentralized renewable energy sources like wind and solar, which are obviously highly volatile based on the weather.

That's right.

The engineering feat of the smart grid is a marvel, truly.

But structurally, that two-way communication radically expands the attack surface, and the core vulnerability lies in the legacy systems running the grid, specifically the SCADA systems.

Real-time.

Smart grid.

Great plan.

Watching all the time.

Well, I want to pause for a brief moment.

I want to certainly transition at some point to your work in creating the smart grid technology, your research and development on it.

But I want to go back to one of my earlier comments because I have business leaders that might be listening to this and they probably love programs that tell them how to start a business or how to build their website or how to utilize AI and integrate it into their retail store.

But what you just mentioned about every time you click on a button to watch a YouTube video or a TikTok post or an Instagram post, that has to go through some technology somewhere that's fueled by electricity.

I mean, we can talk about... how many billions of dollars, between $50 billion to over $180 billion are the cost of outages due to weather.

And I'm not talking about other factors anymore.

Now, Masoud, so you are an expert in security, which we briefly spoke about earlier, not just electricity in the smart grid, but in security as well.

So there are a couple of items.

I'm sure your listeners have their own opinions or knowledge on that.

But ultimately, centralized power production is kind of a thing of the past and the whole smart grid.

And basically, copper wires don't care, nor aluminum.

They don't care which way the electron is moving.

AI represents a huge opportunity for the transmission and distribution sector as they face a rapidly changing load landscape.

To help explain what those opportunities are, we have joining us Rohan Chelladar, senior power industry analyst and author of Global Data's twenty twenty-six Smart Grids report.

And we'll also be hearing directly from three leading grid management tech providers, Ralf Blumenthal, SVP Europe at Siemens Grid Software; Linda-Maria Wanman, Chief Commercial Officer at Plexigrid; and Talal Iskandar, Executive Management Director at Reactive Technologies.

They'll add to Rohan's insights, explaining the role AI plays in their technologies and what the industry could expect ahead.

To begin, Rohan, can you give us a high-level overview of how AI is making smart grids smarter?

AI is rapidly transforming smart grids by providing tools that optimize operations, increase reliability, and enhance resilience.

The most recent advances highlight how AI is becoming deeply embedded in every layer of grid management, from planning and forecasting to fault detection and edge device control.

With grids becoming more decentralized owing to rooftop solar, energy storage, micro grids, predicting both supply and demand becomes vastly more complex.

A single fund supercharged much of the renaissance.

The $12 billion First Trust NASDAQ Clean Edge Smart Grid Infrastructure Exchange Traded Fund.

Through the end of July, it saw $5.5 billion in net inflows, says Ryan Isakanen, ETF strategist at First Trust, and had a one-year return of 32%.

The index-based First Trust Fund, which dates to 2009, covers a broad scope of the smart grid and electric infrastructure segments and has seen growing investor interest over the past 18 months, says Issa Kanan.

It sits at a sweet spot for investors right now.

Growing demand for electricity from the artificial intelligence build-out, more renewables being added to the electric grid, the need for infrastructure improvements after years of neglect, and energy security amid geopolitical tensions.

It is not your typical ESG fund, he notes, since it lacks a sustainability mandate and exclusionary screens.

While 80% of the fund's holdings are pure play smart grid or grid infrastructure companies, Another 20% are diversified companies, including some utilities that still operate natural gas networks.